


Infinity train: book of the future

by Can_I_See_Your_Passport



Series: The Future saga [1]
Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Future, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Lesbian Parents, lots of references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Can_I_See_Your_Passport/pseuds/Can_I_See_Your_Passport
Summary: This story takes place in the future and follows Tulip's son Cory, and his journey on the train
Relationships: Mikayla/Tulip Olsen
Series: The Future saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926466
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. The Zombie Car

"Listen, you don't know it isn't possible." Cory and his friend Tyler were walking home from school talking to eachother. "Come on man" Cory responded, "Artists don't make sequels to albums, they make new albums." "Listen, dude" Tyler said to him, "View monster 2 WILL happen and it will be GREAT!" As they reached Cory's house, Tyler turned to him and said "Ok, I know you hate me asking this question-" "Then why are you asking it?" Cory responded to him with. "Well, one of your parents making video games must be cool, don't you get to try them before everyone else does?" Tyler asked him. "Well, yeah, I do... But I don't like to." Cory answered with. "Why not?" Tyler asked, "Because I don't need to!" Cory told him. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." Tyler told him. "Ok, see ya." Cory told him, before going inside his house.

Cory entered his house and saw his mom at the kitchen table on her laptop. "Hi mom" he said to her. "How was work?" He asked. "You know, the usual stuff." She responded, "That one Henry guy won't stop pitching that idea for a game about asking everyone at work for free money. I mean, who would want to play that?" Cory nodded, pretending to be interested in what his mom had to say. "So, when is Mikayla coming home? This is the last day of her business trip right?" He asked. "Yeah... about that..." She responded. "What?" "Well... turns out there was a conflict during the trip... So she's not coming home today." "Ok... But she'll be home tomorrow, right?" "She won't be home for a few more days." Cory tried to stay calm, he always preferred Mikayla as a parent. "Are you ok with that?" Tulip asked. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Cory said, before going upstairs to his bedroom. He didn't want to admit it, but he was honestly getting sick of Tulip.

Later that night, Tulip was standing on the back porch thinking about... well just thinking about general stuff. Mainly new concepts for games she could create. Her house was in front of a set of train tracks. Not for any particular reason though, she simply believed it was a nice house and the train tracks behind her house was something she only found out after she and Mikayla moved into the house. She saw a train go by, but not just any train. She immediately recognized it as the same train she went on when she was her son's age. "Yeah, no way I'm going back there." She told herself, and chose to ignore it. Only then she heard the sound of a window opening, she looked up at the window to Cory's bedroom and saw that it was open. Tulip then saw Cory going towards the train and began to panic. "Cory! Get back inside the house!" Cory, being tired of his mom making decisions for him, got even closer to the train. "Cory, I'm being serious! Do NOT get on that train!" Cory gave Tulip a mean look, before entering the train.

A FEW HOURS LATER

Cory woke up to a girl standing above him. He immediately got up and backed away from the girl. The girl appeared to be Native American and had hair which appeared to be dyed silver. "Where am I? Who are you? Why is there snow everywhere? Did... Did I take a train to Massachusetts or something? is that why there's snow everywhere?" "Relax, relax." The girl told him. "You didn't take a train to Massachusetts, in fact you're still on the train." "I'm what?" He responded with. "I haven't been on many trains but I'm certain they don't look like Massachusetts on the inside." "Ok just relax for a second. Let's go to the next train car so I can explain everything to you." she said to him. "Ok, no, there's no way this is a train, in fact I would say this is the opposite of a train." "Well if this is the opposite of a train, then why does that snowman have a door on it?" she asked him. "Well, I don't know" he said. "If you try to bring me through that door I'm not coming with you, I don't even know your name and you're telling me that we're on a train when we're clearly not. How am I supposed to trust you?" "Alright, my name is Mable" She said. "Do you trust me now?" "Alright, I guess" He responded with.

Cory followed Mable through the door and was stunned at what he saw. They really were on a train, a train that appeared to be in some sort of wasteland. "Do you believe me now?" Mable asked him. "Well... You know more about this place than I do so I have no choice but to trust you, also my name is Cory, Cory Olsen." "Wait... Olsen, as in... Tulip olsen?" Mable asked. "...yes" he responded. "That's so cool! Your mom is like a role model to me, she's the reason I became interested in game design." She told him. "Cool, now let's head to the next car so you can tell me what's going on."

They settled down in the next car, which appeared to resemble a forest of some sort. They sat down around a campfire and Mable pulled out a notebook with "guide to the train" written on it. "So, this train is essentially some sort of magical therapy... for lack of a better word. You see that number on your right hand?" Cory looked at his hand and saw a glowing green number. "That's your 'progress'. You lower that number by dealing with your personal problems and when you reach zero, you get to go home! Every train car is different from the last, and a good amount of them actually have creatures in them called 'Denizens' which are creatures from the train who can accompany you on your journey." Mable then pointed at a group of acorns walking together, as if they were campers at some sort of summer camp. "So, there's a whole lot of other stuff I could go over but that would just make our journey on the train longer if I went over it so... any questions?" "I do have a question... how do you know all of this?" Cory asked. "Well... this may sound kind of cheesy but... my parents actually met on the train." Cory snickered a bit at that "They made this guidebook for me and felt like going on this train would be a good thing for dealing with... some of my problems." "Wait" Cory said "Your parents willingly put you on a death trap?" "What? No!" Mable said, "I just told you this is a therapy train." "Well there has to be SOMETHING dangerous on this train," Cory told her. "Of course not!" She said. "Well, there are actually these creatures called ghoms who will try to suck your life energy, but it's very rare that you'll actually find one." "Alright, whatever you say." Cory responded with suspicion.

They then exited the car and moved on to the next one. Which appeared to be a graveyard of some sort. "A graveyard... great." As they continued through the graveyard, they had some time to talk about themselves. "So... are you also interested in game design?" Mable asked Cory "No, not exactly." He responded with. "Really? I'd expect Tulip Olsen's son to also be a nerd." "Well, maybe me being adopted means I didn't get the nerd gene." He told her. "I guess you're more like my mom than I am." As they continued walking, they began to heard strange noises. "Do... Do you hear that? Or am I hearing things?" Cory asked. The 2 of them turned around and saw what was making that noise. "Zombies? Seriously"

They began to run, "Are you sure this isn't a death trap? because the way I see it we're about to get our brains eaten." They kept running until Mable stopped to slow down. "What are you doing? are you trying to get killed by a zombie?" Cory asked. "Look!" she said back to him. Cory looked around and saw that the zombies weren't coming after them, but rather doing their own thing. He saw 2 zombies who appeared to be young playing jump rope. "They don't want to hurt us! They're peaceful zombies!" She told him. "phew, well that's a relief." He then saw another zombie by himself who appeared to be crying.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked the zombie. "Is there something wrong?" The zombie only responded with a groan. "Right, of course they have limited vocabulary." He thought to himself. "Can you tell us your name? Like, a gravestone or something?" Mable asked the zombie. He responded by pointing to a gravestone, the gravestone only said one thing.

💧︎♓︎❍︎□︎■︎ ☹︎♋︎◆︎❒︎♏︎■︎⧫︎

"Um... I can't read that." Mable told the zombie. "Wait, that's wingdings!" Cory pointed out. "That's what now?" Mable asked. "It's a font that instead of using standard letters, it instead uses various symbols. I can't read it though." "Well hey," Mable said, "I guess you have some nerd in you." She then noticed the zombie following them as they were exiting the car. "Do you want to come with us?" She asked. "If you do, we're gonna have to give you a name because... we can't exactly read wingdings. How about... Alan Dracula?"

"Well..." Cory said "That's the stupidest name I've ever heard and I think you just hurt his feelings." He told her. "Yeah" She said, "It's the same name my dad came up with for his Denizen." "Well I guess being bad at naming stuff is genetic." Cory told her. "How about... Neil?" "Neil... Do you like that name?" The zombie nodded. "Alright, so now begins the journey of Mable, Cory, and-" Before Cory could finish his sentence, a green wave went through the car and every thing began shaking.

"What's going on?" Cory asked. "The car is being shifted." Mable said. "Come on" the trio managed to escape the car safely. "Wait, so the cars can shift?" Cory asked. "Not when there are passengers in it, I guess there's something wrong with the train." She told him. "But we can't let that distract us, we have to continue on!" Mable said. "NOW begins the journey of Mable, Cory and Neil!"


	2. The Telephone Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio stumbles across a car that only contains a sentient telephone. The only problem is that the phone only says complete nonsense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to come out yesterday but it came out today instead so oops. Also this chapter is one big HLVRAI reference so if you haven't watched that then you'll be confused

"Hey Mable" Cory asked Mable as they exited the black market car.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any headphones?"

"Why?"

"I haven't listened to my playlist since before I got on the train."

"Come on, listening to music will just be a distraction."

"Listen, this is the longest I've gone without listening to lemon demon and it doesn't feel right."

"What the hell is lemon demon?"

"Only the GREATEST musician known to man! His real name is Neil Cicierega but he releases music under the title lemon demon."

"Did... Did you name Neil after this guy?"

"Hah... Yeah... But you've had to have heard one of his songs at some point, right? Ultimate showdown?"

"Nope"

"Brodyquest?"

"That sounds stupid"

"Touch tone telephone?"

"Never heard it."

"Two trucks?"

"Oh... he's that guy?"

"Yeah... but not all his music is like that!"

"Ok Cory, if you want to know real music. There's a song that my dad taught me when I was a kid. It goes like this! When I look at you..."

Cory started walking away, thinking she wouldn't notice because her eyes were closed when she started singing. He then noticed his number go up.

"What the?"

Mable stopped singing and noticed that Cory was halfway across the bridge between cars.

"My number went up, I guess that means the train has something against harmless pranks." Cory told her

"It must have something against you being a jerk." She replied with before flicking Cory on the forehead with her gloved hand. Cory noticed that getting flicked felt like getting hit in the head by something made of metal.

"Sorry Neil" Mable said. "Cory just likes slowing us down." She said only for her number to go up.

"Now we're even!" Cory said with a smug expression. Mable then opened the door to the next car. The car appeared to be a blank, featureless room only containing an old telephone. Despite that, Neil began panicking when he saw the inside of the car.

"What's he freaking out about?" Cory asked

"Hey, Neil, Relax!" Mable said "It's just a telephone. Ok?"

After entering the car, Cory picked up the phone and began to dial

"Hey don't touch that." He heard a voice from the phone tell him.

"What? Who is this?"

"The phone."

"Wait, you're a sentient phone"

"Yeah I guess. But uhhhhhhhhhhhhh you have to solve my 3 riddles if you want to go to the next car."

Cory turned to Mable "Are you any good at riddles?" Mable shook her head in response.

"Alright, what's the first riddle?"

"Ok ok ok... Mike was born before his father-" The phone was cut off by something. Mable and Cory didn't know by what until they noticed Neil trying to open the door and failing.

"Neil!" Mable said. "We can't leave until we solve the riddle ok?"

"We're you guys trying to leave early?"

"Oh no no no no no, we just have a Denizen here who's a bit confused, we weren't trying to skip over your riddles"

"I knew this was gonna happen."

"What do you mean you knew this was gonna happen?"

"I'm telling you- look, I like everything. I'm a great cool. I feel a good but when you skip my riddles you make me angry!"

"I don't even know what that means."

"Listen, I had a whole day planned. I was supposed to go to Corginia with my Game clam so that me and my friend Atticus could play good guys popping bad guys. Good guys popping bad guys is NOT a ripoff of space invaders, Good guys popping bad guys was supposed to be the new Metroid for Olsen games."

Cory hung up the phone. "Yeah he's just saying complete nonsense now."

"Let me try" Mable said before picking up the phone. "Hey so I'm gonna try the riddles now."

"OLSEN GAMES CEO TULIP OLSEN SURVIVED A NUCLEAR BOMB. TULIP OLSEN HIRED TRAIN CONDUCTOR ONE ONE TO BUILD A BIG BOMB THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO OFF BUT I STOPPED THEM. I SAVED THE WORLD."

Mable then hung up the phone. "Yeah he's still saying complete nonsense. Like I'm pretty sure your mom isn't a ceo..."

Cory turned to Neil. "This is your fault! If you hadn't tried to go through the car early then we would've been able to solve the riddles! Now we're stuck in this car because of you!"

"Cory stop!" Mable said before walking over to Neil to comfort him. "He doesn't mean it, ok? Just relax..."

A FEW HOURS LATER

"Hey Mable" Cory said.

"What?"

"Do you think now I can-"

"No"

"Why not?"

"We're supposed to be thinking of ways to get out of this car since the phone is talking about your mom working with the conductor to build a bomb."

"Is that really what you've been thinking about these past few hours?"

"Yes!"

"Alright... You haven't denied the fact you have headphones."

"Well yes, I do"

"Why did you bring them if they're a distraction?"

"Can you be quiet?"

Cory noticed Neil standing in front of the phone with a blank expression and walked up to him."

"Hey buddy, I don't know if you're listening, honestly you look kind of clocked out. But... I'm sorry for yelling at you. I mean really there was no way any of us would've expected that to happen... I have a problem when it comes to blaming people for stuff that isn't really their fault at all. One time me and my friend Tyler we're in my backyard tossing a football back and forth, I threw it a little too hard and it flew right past his head and through the window into my kitchen. Even though it was obviously my fault because I'm the one who threw it... I blamed him for not catching it. So if I blame you for anything then there's a good chance it's not your fault."

Cory didn't notice his number go down as Neil turned his head to him, pointed at the phone, then pointed to his right ear.

"You want to talk to him?" Cory asked. "Alright, but just know he might not understand you."

Cory gave Neil the phone. There was a long series of random grunts and moans into the phone. Neil then hung up the phone, walked to the other end of the car and opened up the door. Cory and Mable were completely stunned at this, so much so that Cory grabbed the phone to talk to it. "Can you understand him?"

"Yeah dude, I don't get why people with numbers on their hands can't understand zombies."

"And... He solved the riddles?"

"Uhhhhhh no, he apologized actually."

"For what?"

"What he did, goodbye."

As the three exited the car. Cory and Mable took note of their numbers, and Mable reached into her backpack and pulled out a pair of headphones.

"You can listen to that lemon guy now if you want." She told him

Cory grabbed the headphones, but then gave them back to her. "I want you to take a listen" He said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you can't knock it till you try it."

Mable grabbed the headphones and put them on, while Cory connected them to his phone and played the first song. Then they were on their way.


	3. The Arcade Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gang enters an arcade car where they must beat an unbeatable video game

"So what do you think?" Cory asked.

"You know... It's pretty good! Consider me a fan!"

"Nice! Which one was your favorite?"

"I liked sweet bod the most, it just has a funky tune to it."

"Yeah, I like that he was able to make a song about an ancient tradition about covering a corpse in honey to turn it into medicine sound catchy!"

All Mable did after he said that was give him a weird look. "Ok! Let's see what's in this car!"

Mable opened the door to the next car, which appeared to be an arcade.

"Hey! an arcade! this seems cool!" Mable said

"Yeah, but it looks like all the cabinets are broken."

"Not me!"

The 2 kids were startled by whatever said that, and then noticed an arcade machine that still worked.

"Hey there you two!"

"Uh... Hi!" Cory said

"Now as you can see, the three of you are stuck in this car! If you want to move on to the next car you must beat my game!"

"Ok I'll bite" Cory said. "What's the game?"

"The state of the art game! The GREATEST game you'll ever see! The long awaited sequel... Good guys popping bad guys 2!"

"Right..." Cory said. "Can I talk with Mable for a second?"

"Yeah go ahead" The arcade machine responded with.

Cory turned to Mable "There's something fishy going on."

"What?"

"This is the second time they've mentioned good guys popping bad guys, first when that phone was rambling complete nonsense, and now here we have a sequel!"

"Ok... What about it."

"My mom told me that was the first game she ever made... When she was 13."

"Huh... Maybe the train knows who your parents are?"

"You know what... Let's just go with that!" They then turned to the machine. "Ok bud, we'll play your game."

"Alrighty! But remember my slogan!" A graphic of a hand pointing up showed up on the screen. Above the machine they saw a sign with the "Slogan" on it

"That's not a slogan... That's the chorus to cabinet man"

"IT'S MY SLOGAN!"

"You can play the game first." Cory said to Mable.

'Hm, Alright!" Mable responded. "Alright game, let's see what you're made of!"

20 DEATHS LATER

"Come on! This game is unfair!" Mable said after her 20th death. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"

"Listen, I'm probably not gonna get as far as you."

"Well clearly me playing through the game isn't getting us any farther, so you should try!"

"Alright fine."

5 DEATHS LATER

"Seriously? I expected you to be better at video games than this!"

"Stop!"

"What?"

"I'm tired of this! I'm tired of everyone expecting me to be Tulip Olsen, and I'm tired of her trying to make me more like her!"

"Hey! Relax!"

"No... All those coding classes she made me sit through, everyone asking what her next game would be... I'm sick of it!"

"Hey... I'm sorry, ok?

"It's fine, it's just... that's it!"

"What?"

"We both know some stuff about programming, and I'll admit that I didn't really plan my trip I just saw a train and though it looked cool... but I brought my laptop."

"Ok... Your point?"

"What if we reprogram the game so that we can beat it?"

"That... that's a great idea!"

Cory plugged his laptop into the machine. "Ok, what should I do?"

"How about... Infinite health?"

"Yeah! That should do the trick!"

Cory changed the programming of the game to give Mable infinite health. Just like that, she breezed through the game like it was nothing.

Their fanfair was shortlived as they heard relentless banging after that. They noticed Neil was having some sort of fit. "What's going one this time Neil?" Cory asked. Neil then started pointing at the "slogan"

"Yeah, what about it- wait... I won't hurt you unless you cheat."

"And... Technically we cheated"

"So..."

They watched the arcade machine start shaking, until it started shaking faster, and just like that it exploded. What was left was a creature

"Um... What is that?"

"That's one of those Ghom things I was telling you about."

They both started running to another car. Only to realize that they were missing someone. "Where's Neil?"

They looked back and saw something surprising. The ghom looked... scared?

"Is... Is that ghom intimidated by Neil?"

"I think it is!"

Eventually, the ghom ran away.

"So... Ghoms are afraid of zombies?

"I guess they are!"

"Well, that's helpful. Now let's keep going! We have numbers to decrease!"


	4. The Bat People car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to a Brooklyn-esque car inhabited by Bat people and end up assisting in a murder mystery

“Is it just me, or is Neil humming some sort of tune?” Cory asked

“What do you mean?”

“Just listen”

They listened closely to the subtle sounds Neil made as they walked along

“Well, that’s probably just zombie noises. I would think to hard about it”

“Every time he does 4 lines of 7 hums, meaning 7 syllables. Then he does 1 line of 4 hums.”

Mable took another listen, “you know, it does kind of sound like a song.”

“Yeah, it’s weird.”

They then entered the next car. "Hm, compared to everything else we've seen this is fairly normal." Cory said. The car appeared to be a normal city, something akin to Brooklyn. That was until they saw what appeared to be a bat person fly right over them.

"Nevermind."

"Look! Humans!" One of the bat people said. "Welcome! We... We need your help.

"Why?"

"Well... There's been a murder."

As they approached the scene of the crime, Cory asked "Are we really the best choice for this? I hate to break it to you but neither of us know anything about investigating a crime scene."

"Well you see kid, echolocation may be useful but it's very limited, and this investigation needs people who can actually see."

"Alright, let's take a look." Mable said. The scene of the crime was a bar, and the bartender had been killed. "Hm, well there's a piece of paper here but it's completely blank."

"Ah... So we brought you guys here for nothing?" The detective asked. Neil then grabbed the piece of paper and started pointing at it.

"Neil, there's nothing on it." Mable told him, but Neil didn't stop pointing at the paper. "Maybe there's something he can see which we can't."

"Hey, come take a look at this." Cory said. "I don't know if this is an M.O. or if it even means anything, but look at his face." The face had a line carved into it, appearing as a curvy red line.

"That does mean something." Mable said. "That's the symbol of the Apex."

"The what?"

"Well, the Apex is a cult that worships the so called 'true conductor', a woman named Amelia who took over the train for some time until someone helped one one get back to the engine. They tried to indoctrinate my dad at one point. They believed in getting numbers up instead of down which meant destroying cars and wheeling denizens."

"So what you're saying is that a member of Apex did this?"

"Hmm, I don't think so. There's a chance that the apex was disbanded and even if they weren't this isn't their typical M.O. Usually they throw denizens at the wheel, or 'wheel' them, as they called it."

All of a sudden, Neil began pointing at the body and back at his face.

"Neil, I like you buddy but you're terrible at charades." Cory said.

"Wait, why haven't we looked at the security cameras?" Mable said. They took a look at the footage, which showed what appeared to be some sort of turtle woman killing the bartender. "Well, it's not a member of apex but rather some sort of turtle woman."

"Hm, I guess that means our culprit is in the turtle car. Let's go fellas." The detective said, they then left after that leaving the 2 passengers and their zombie.

"I guess they like jumping to conclusions. Because there's no way that's all there is here."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at her outfit, you see those symbols on it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That symbol looks like the conductor. So I think our turtle woman is working for one-one."

"I still think one one is a stupid name."

Neil then went into another one of his fits. He started by pointing at the screen, hugging himself, and ended by stomping on the floor."

"...Right." Cory said. "Let's bring that paper, if Neil can see something on it that we can't then it may be useful."

"Alright, whatever." Mable said, before putting the paper in her pocket. As they were leaving, Mable took another look at the turtle woman and thought to herself

"Who are you?"


	5. The Ghost car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gang goes to a car inhabited by ghosts where not only do they learn something interesting about Neil, but Cory discovers a secret his mother kept from him his whole life.

"That was probably one of my favorite cars!" Cory said.

"Really? I almost drowned!" Mable said in response.

"Well that's what happens when you exit your submarine. At least Neil agrees that was a great car, right?" Neil then nodded in agreement. "See? That's 2 against 1 on the Atlantis car.

"The next car better not have any water." Mable said as she opened the door to the next car. The inside resembled an old house.

"Huh... Yeah I don't like this one." Cory said. The three of them continued to walk through the car until they froze in fear. "Great, because there just HAD to be ghosts here! Because why not?"

"Oh don't think I mean to harm you broski." The ghost told him

"Wh- what did you just call me?"

"Welcome to the most fly, radical, and dope car on this whole train! The ghost car!" Cory and Mable just stood there in silence with no response. "Holy moly dude, is that a zombie. RAAAAAAD!"

"Oh no." Cory said

"Listen, Zombies and ghosts are like, total home dawgs, ain't that right bro-mungulus?"

Cory turned to Mable and whispered "Please don't tell me he's gonna talk like that the whole time."

"Listen my fellow bro-machines, when a passenger dies on the train they become either a ghost or a zombie."

"Wait, so Neil was a passenger?"

"Exactamundo dudette."

"So... what determines whether the passenger becomes a ghost or a zombie?"

"Well you see, if one of those ghoms gets a passenger they become a zombie, but if a passenger dies from something else they become a ghost. For example, I became a ghost because for some reason the train has a problem with me shredding some knar on the wheels."

"...Why would that not kill you?" Cory asked.

"Nope, no more questions my brotinos. You broniums can go and explore upstairs while me and my homeski have a little chat."

"Wait... So ghosts can understand zombies."

"I said no more questions... But yes my bro... Listen these are hard to come up with ok?"

"Well, lets see what's upstairs." Mable told Cory.

As they explored the upstairs, all they saw were the bedrooms of the various ghosts.

"Alright so I see the names on their doors, Lucy, Grace... This one doesn't have a name on it"

"Look above it."

The two of them looked above the door and saw a sign labeled MEMORY ROOM

"Memory room? What the hell does that mean?" Cory asked

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Mable asked

As they entered the room, what they saw were tons of boxes and an old TV.

"Oh my god, memory tapes!"

"Memory... tapes?"

"Yeah! Every passenger gets a memory tape to determine their number. Let me see if I can find my dad's..."

"Well if we're in the ghost car then that probably means there are probably only tapes for the dead passengers."

"Nope! Just found his first tape!"

"Why is it labeled as 1?"

"My dad actually went on twice, the second time was to save my mom. So I'm gonna keep looking to see if I can find the second one."

"Well I guess i'll help!"

Cory and Mable began rummaging through the tapes, but Cory paused when he saw a certain someone's name on a tape.

"Cory? What's wrong?"

"Why does this tape... Have my mom's name on it?"

Mable waited a few seconds to respond. "Well... It's probably someone with the same name."

"No no no, we're watching this!"

"Do we need to?"

"This tape means that my mom went on this train, I'm not just gonna let this thing sit here without watching it!"

"Cory, I'm sure it's nothing."

Cory didn't listen to Mable and put his mother's tape into the tv. They were then warped into the memory zone.

"Alright, So how do we enter a memory?" Cory asked

"Cory, this is unnecessary."

"Oh of course! I just found something that says my mom went on this train, and I'm supposed to just-" Before Cory could finish his sentence, they found themselves somewhere else. "This... this is my grandmother's house... And those are my grandparents sitting at the table."

A young redhead girl came down the stairs. "That's... My mom."

"We having dinner here or going out?"

"Neither. We just want to talk to you."

"Talk with you."

"She gets it."

"I know what this is." Cory said.

"Tulip, we want you to know we both love you so much, but... things are going to be changing soon."

"Changing? Uh, is this like a puberty thing? 'Cause if so, I'm fine!"

"This is when my grandparents told her they were getting divorced..." Cory told Mable

"Let's just go get Chinese food and-"

"Tulip, sit."

"Andy."

"What?"

"You might have noticed Dad and I have... problems sometimes like arguments, things like that"

"We've tried to fix things, but your Mom and I decided to take some time off from each other. Are you... Okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Ok Cory I think we've seen enough, how about we-"

"Are you... getting divorced?"

"Uh, Well... right now, we're just separating."

"But then you're gonna get divorced after that."

"Cory seriously, we get the idea. Your mom-"

"It's not that simple, bud."

Yeah, it is. You're either married or you're not. What else is there?"

"Tulip please, we just want you to know that none of this is your fault."

"I know what! Why would it be?!"

"Cory, are we going or not?"

"I need to know the truth!"

"Tulip, I'm so sorry."

"We've seen the truth! What else are we gonna get from this?"

"Things change, but our love for you won't, we just want you to understand-"

"I understand perfectly! Things were fine, but then you decided to change everything!" As tulip walked away, Cory went to go hug his mom. But right when he touched her shoulder he felt static, and the scene changed.

"There's more of this?" Mable asked. "Why can't we just leave?"

This scene was different. This time it was only Tulip's mother at the bottom of the stairs, with no dad in sight.

"Tulip, I'm so sorry but your dad can't take you to camp."

"We've seen what we want to see, we've heard what we want to hear. What more do you want Cory?"

"What?! What do you mean?! You- ugh. You said if I brought my grade up in English I could go! You-You-You and Dad signed a contract and everything."

"There's just one more thing I need to see." Cory said

"I-I know, Bud. But your dad mixed up the dates and planned a work trip out of town."

"What? What good does sitting through this pain do if we already know the answer?"

"Okay, well, then why don't you take me?!"

"At least your parents actually told you about the train! This is something my mom kept from me my whole life! I need to see every little detail!"

"I have a 12-hour shift at the hospital tonight and then another shift on Sunday. I thought you'd be gone the whole time."

"Can you just tell me the last thing you need to see? Then we can leave this torture chamber you call an answer!"

"What, So you're both too busy to be my parents?"

"I just... I NEED TO SEE HER STEP ON THE TRAIN!"

as Cory said that, the memory sped up and all of a sudden, they were near some train tracks surrounded by snow. After that they saw Tulip walk up to the tracks, and step onto the train. Just like that they left the memory.

"Mable... I-"

"Thanks Cory, I really needed to see that. I hope you're happy." Mable said as she left the car with tears in her eyes. As she left, Cory laid on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, and cried himself to sleep.


	6. The Beehive car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After entering a beehive car, Neil is accused of damaging said car and Mable goes to save him from the queen bee while Cory get's advice from a Denizen who helped his mom when she was on the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW this was a long chapter, It took me quite some time to write it so I apologize for the wait... Also I don't know how to write fight scenes so you'll just have to fill in the blanks there

"Hello?"

Cory woke up in a cold sweat, he saw a ghost of a girl wearing your eyepatch standing before him. "Your friends are downstairs waiting for you."

Cory walked downstairs and saw his friends standing there waiting for him. "So... you guys actually waited for me huh?"

Cory's question got no response, but Neil handed a piece of paper with wingdings on it to Cory and the ghost who greeted them the other day came up to him and said "that's one messed up zombie you have there."

As they left the car, Cory tried to talk to Mable about what happened the night before.

"Hey Mable... About what happened-"

"Don't talk to me"

"I just want to know-"

"I said don't talk to me."

They were then about to enter the next car, but as soon as they saw the inside of the car Neil started panicking.

"Seriously? What now?" Cory asked.

"He probably had a bad experience in this car when he was a passenger."

"Oh, so that's what all this panicking has been about? Bad experiences? Come on Neil, it's either we go in the car or we stay here until that green wave that made your car shift comes back."

The car was resembled the inside of a beehive, and it wasn't long until the bees started giving them weird looks.

"Just ignore them, they're probably just-"

"HALT!"

The three of them were stopped in their tracks, and were approached by a bee who was obviously the queen. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"We're... walking?"

"You're bringing a fugitive with you." The queen said while pointing at Neil. "When he was a numbered folk like you two, him and his band of kids decided to come into our peaceful hive and destroy, loot, and murder our peaceful residents! And this is not even the only car he and his gang destroyed!"

"Wait wait wait... Is she saying that Neil was a member of Apex?" Cory asked Mable

"If you wish to keep him with you, you must challenge the prince to a trial by combat and you will only win if you defeat him."

"And if we don't want him?" Cory asked

"Well... Then you can keep going on your way."

Cory took one look at Mable, one look at Neil, and one look at the bee who he assumed was the prince. "Keep him." Mable and Neil were shocked at what Cory said

"Interesting... then I supposed you'll be on your way." Cory handed Neil over to the bees and went to the exit. After exiting the car Mable stopped him on the bridge. "What is wrong with you?"

"Listen Mable, if you just think about it you'll realize that what I did was justified."

"Seriously? What part of abandoning your friend is justified?"

"I believe you said it yourself, a Denizen is supposed to be helpful, and yet he's done nothing but dragged us down."

"Seriously? What about when he saved us from the ghom? What about this piece of paper which he can read but we can't?"

"Ok... But what about when he constantly refused to go into cars because he was scared?"

"Look at yourself Cory, after that torture you put me through in the ghost car and now abandoning Neil? I mean just look at your number!"

Cory took one look at his hand, and his number had just gone into the quadruple digits. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT MY NUMBER! I'LL FIND A NEW DENIZEN WHO WILL ACTUALLY HELP US GET OFF THIS TRAIN!"

"Us? You can do this by yourself, I'm going back for Neil."

"You'll die." Cory said, before going into the next car while Mable went back into the beehive car."

THE HIVE

"You're not gonna kill him" Mable said.

"Apologies dear, but I believe we had a deal." The queen responded with

"No, you had a deal with Cory. But Cory isn't here right now."

"Do you really wish for a trial by combat?"

"Of course"

"Very well, come along then."

MEANWHILE

Cory entered the next car, the car resembled what seemed to be some sort of dog civilization. One of the Corgis blew the horn to notify everyone of a new visitor.

"Welcome! Young sir! Welcome to Corginia! I am Atticus, king and uniter of the cardigans and pembrokes!"

"Hi... I'm-" Before Cory finished is sentence, he saw in the distance a statue of his mother. "Is... that my mom?"

"You mean to tell me you're the child of Tulip the literate?"

"Tulip... The literate?"

"Why yes, when she introduced herself the first thing she told us was her love for books. We had that statue built in honor of our journey together to defeat... The shadow monster!"

"You joined her on her journey?"

"Why yes, she even saved me when I was turned into one of those horrible monsters... eugh."

"So... do you want to come with me? I don't want to be wandering this train by myself."

"Why I'd love to! You just have to do one thing..."

"And what is that?"

"You must give me... The treat"

BACK AT THE HIVE

Neil sat in the hive's prison, and was surprised when he saw Mable approaching his cell.

"Neil? Are you there?" Neil and Mable tried to hug but of course, he was behind bars which made that impossible. "Yeah I know buddy, it's scary down here. But I'm gonna get you out of here ok? Cory... you don't have to worry about him anymore ok? I'm gonna get you out, just hang in there!"

CORGINIA

"And just like that, your mother told the false conductor, 'You cannot even make a car without any turtles in it!' A statement of TRUE power!"

"Nice! You know, it's nice to have a denizen who actually talks to me."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well... Nothing"

"Cory, is there something you're not telling me?"

"Ok FINE, I had some friends on the train but we're not friends anymore! End of story!"

"End of story? I may have very limited paws but I can tell there's more to your story!"

"Ok... There was a denizen with me named Neil, he's a zombie... a denizen is supposed to be helpful but did he help? Of course not! He just drags me down! And another passenger named Mable didn't mind his unhelpfulness! Look! He even left me this note which I can't even read!"

"We have a Corgi who specializes in translating that! But... what happened to Neil?"

"The queen bee wanted him, so I handed him over to them and Mable decided to go back for him."

And just like that, Atticus stopped walking.

"Are... are you coming?"

"Of course not! I won't accompany someone who abandons their friends!"

"Why should he care about being abandoned? He's a zombie!"

"Young man, the top science Corgis have researched zombies before. They say that those horrible monsters have an easier time devouring the numbered folks if the number on their paw is high. Think about how much abandonment and betrayal he had to go through to get a number that high! Whether it's being abandoned, or having a secret kept from you by a close friend."

"You know... I make a good point."

"Of course I do, I'm a king after all!"

"Maybe this paper he left me actually means something. Where's the translator dog?"

THE HIVE

"Choose your weapon, Human. Choose it wisely"

Mable was shown a whole ton of weapons. "You know... I like the hammer."

"Then it shall be the hammer! Good luck... Human"

Mable entered the arena, at the other side of the arena was another bee, obviously the prince who had...

"Why does he have a katana?" Mable thought to herself

"LaBEES and gentlemen, on one end of the arena we have the prince, on the other end we have the challenger. While one of you may die, there's a small chance you won't... a small chance. May the fates of the challengers be ever natural!"

CORGINIA

The translator pup handed the translated piece of paper back to Cory, and Cory read the note

TEAMWORK BEGINS WITH TWO PEOPLE TRUSTING EACHOTHER

"What does that mean?"

"I believe he's trying to tell you that if you want to get off the train, you must trust not only Neil, but Mable as well."

"How can I trust Neil if I don't know anything about him? I mean he was part of that apex group!"

"Well, every zombie regrets what they did as a passenger, I doubt he'd want to start destroying cars again. If I were you I would go back to save Mable before the prince chops her head off!"

THE HIVE

The battle had begun, and the prince immediately dashed forward. Mable was terrified at the situation she was in. as the fight went on she eventually had her hammer knocked out of her hand.

"Heh, guess you're going down huh?" While Mable was scared, she was only laughing to herself because of how ridiculous the prince talked and looked. As he swung is sword at her something impossible happened, she caught the blade. The crowd was shocked at this. And while the prince was surprised at what he just saw, he didn't want to seem scared. "Well well well... Guess I'm gonna have to take this a bit more seriously"

"If he puts on a fedora I swear to god-" The prince then put on a fedora. "God dammit" she thought to herself.

The prince went for another swing, but someone interfered.

"Cory? What are you doing here?" Mable asked as he stood in front of the blade

"Excuse me sir, but you're interrupting the battle!" The prince told him. Cory started giggling at him. "What's so funny, bud?"

"I'm sorry... I'm just surprised that the prince is... a neckBEErd!"

"ugh... Just take the zombie with you, I quit!"

Everyone was confused at what exactly happened during the fight. "So... What made you change your mind?" Mable asked

"Well, Teamwork begins with 2 people trusting eachother."

"Who told you that?"

"Neil did. I had someone translate this note he gave me!"

"Hm, and I imagine Neil learned that from someone else. Right Neil?" Neil nodded in agreement.

"Well I have a question for you" Cory said. "How did you catch the blade with your hand."

"Well... it was my glove!"

"Was it now?"

"Um... yeah! Let's get a move on shall we?"

As the three of them moved on to the next car, Cory though to himself about what Mable told him. He knew there was a secret she was keeping but he knew he had to wait to ask her.


	7. The Cat's car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang meets an infamous denizen who forces Mable to tell Cory a secret she didn't want him to know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is way shorter than the other ones because I decided to make it more brief than the other chapters. I'm expecting the next chapters to go back to the length of the other chapters.

"You see this Mable? This is what we call a souvenir! A glowing rock from the jungle car!"

"Yeah about that... Souvenirs aren't exactly possible when it comes to the train."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad tried to take my- an Apex harpoon pack off the train but it didn't work."

"Well fine, I didn't want the glowing rock anyway!"

The two of them were interrupted by the sound of someone crying. They turned around and saw Neil looking back into the jungle car and crying.

"Hey buddy," Mable said. "Did something happen in the jungle car?" Neil then looked at her and nodded his head.

"Well... you can't let that distract you, we have places to go. Ok buddy?"

As Cory opened to door to the next car, they saw a snowy landscape with what appeared to be a log cabin in the distance. This caused Neil to panic.

"Hey hey hey, Neil, some advice? Let go of the past. What happened in this car the last time you were in it isn't gonna happen again, you got that?"

Neil nodded his head, got up, and the trio continued into the car. Eventually they got into the cabin and they heard a voice.

"Why is it that whenever I go on vacation it always has to be interrupted by some kids?" 

"Listen lady, you really expect people to not come in to your cabin?" Cory asked

"Watch out Neil, this is the cat." Mable said

"THE cat? as in, the only cat on the whole train?"

"Ah, I see that you've already heard of me. Word gets around, doesn't it kitten?"

"Well... My parents actually met on the train, they told me about you-"

"Well won't you look at that, you and your parents haven't learned about staying away from mysterious looking trains."

"Well... They actually decided that me going on the train would be a good idea, they were really selling the 'therapy' part of the train and they even made this guidebook for me!"

"You went on this train by choice?"

"That's EXACTLY what I've been asking her this entire journey!" Cory butted in with

"Well I suppose if your parents were on the train I can recognize them by looking at you, let me see... Silver hair... That skin tone... I remember... In the lucky cat car..." The cat then hissed at Mable. "It's you! You're the hybrid!"

"What's she talking about?" Cory asked

"Nothing, she's just making stuff up."

"You haven't told your friend your secret, have you kitten? You don't think he deserves the truth?"

"What truth?"

"Nothing!"

"Go on kitten, tell him. Tell him about your mother."

Mable took a deep breath in, she was terrified, she didn't know how Cory would react to her secret, but she had no choice but to spill the beans. She took off her glove, revealing that her left hand appeared to be made of metal. "My... My mom is a denizen"

Cory was confused. "What... what do you mean?"

"She's a reflection, your mom's reflection."

"What do you mean she's my mom's reflection? What are you talking about?"

"Well...

ONE RECAP OF S1E7 AND BOOK 2 LATER

"I understand if you're mad at me Cory, I shouldn't have kept this from you..."

"I'm... I'm not mad."

"You're not?"

"I get that, if I was in your shoes I would also be afraid... but you don't have to be afraid of yourself."

"Heh... Thanks cory."

"Now was that so hard Kitten?" The cat asked.

"No... Not really. I guess we'll be on our way."

"Good, I was hoping for some piece and quiet."

"Also could you stop staring at Neil? He's shy and I think you're freaking him out" Cory said.

"My apologies, he's just... oddly familar."

"Well, maybe you met him when he was a passenger!"

"That's obvious... but something about him is..."

Cory and Mable decided to leave as the cat appeared to be lost in thought. But as they left the cabin Neil looked at the cat with apologetic eyes, then he left.

Even though they had already left, The cat had one last thing to say to them. "Good luck... Simon"


	8. Agent Hazel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An agent working for the conductor separates Mable from Cory and Neil

"You know it's kind of unfair." Cory said

"What's unfair?"

"That you knew about my mom being on the train before me."

"Those are the perks of having a reflection mom, she knows about the Grid car, the randalls..."

"Mable? What's wrong?"

"...She knows about that" Mable said before pointing up. They saw in the sky what appeared to be some sort of monster made of black tentacles

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?" Cory shouted

Mable told Cory to be quiet and then ran behind a tree with Cory and Neil. "That would be the steward, and now that you shouted, it knows we're... here"

The Steward saw them, The three of them were anticipating what would happen but after a few seconds, the steward only said "GLITCH IDENTIFIED"

"Very good, now lets get this over with." A woman in the distance said, she had darker skin with blonde hair and was wearing the same outfit as the turtle woman from the bat car

"Greetings Lady, Gentleman... Oddly familiar zombie fellow, my name... is Hazel. I am an agent who works for the conductor. Now like most things, the train isn't perfect."

"Oh wow! I didn't notice! Thanks Hazel!"

"...Do you recall a green wave going over a car you were in which then shifted the car?"

"Yeah"

"That wave was scanning for glitches, my job is to find 'Glitches' on the train. Whether that be Denizens who weren't created by One One, someone who's half human half denizen, I know a glitch when I see one. I mean..." She then morphed into the same turtle woman from the Bat car "I was considered a glitch at one point."

"YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED THE BARTENDER IN THE BAT CAR!" Cory shouted

"Well he was a glitch, so of course I killed him."

"Does that mean... You're gonna kill me?" Mable asked nervously, "Oh, oh I shouldn't have said that..."

"Don't worry young lady, I'll only kill you if I need to." She then grabbed Mables hand. "Now if you could come with me-"

"Let go of me!" Mable jerked her hand away but Hazel was able to take her glove, revealing her chrome hand.

"Interesting... Not only are you half denizen, but you're half reflection! That should make my job a whole lot easier..." She then grabbed a mirror and shoved it in Mable's face

"Listen, the three of us have gone through car after car and not ONCE has a fleck popped up! Mirrors don't work on me!"

"That's because the reflective parts of your body have been covered up!" Hazel then pointed the mirror at Mables hand, then out of the mirror came a flec. "She's all yours, go ahead."

"Will do" The flec responded with before chasing Mable out of the car. Cory tried to follow them but all of a sudden

BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP

Just like that, the steward grabbed Cory and held on tight to his body.

"Hey! Let me go! He's gonna kill her!"

"That's the point! The fact she exists is a glitch! Not only does she break the rules of the train, but she's also breaking the rules of reflections! A Denizen leaving the train and having a kid is bad enough, but a reflection doing that? That's even worse! So I believe that that abomination dying is justified!"

"She's not an abomination! She's a girl named Mable who has a life! When you kill one of your 'glitches', do you ever think 'holy crap! I just killed someone! I just ended someones life! What I have done is screwed up!' You ever think about that?"

"Listen kid, I've been killing since I was 7 years old! You expect me to regret all those deaths? Hm... Those Apex kids had no idea what was coming for them... And they were so close to getting off the train as well! Grace was a bit harder though... I had the Steward help me with her. But my point is that with the right people and the right training, even a 7 year old can be a skilled assassin!"

"Why? Why did you kill them? What was the point of that?"

"...I missed my chance to kill Simon, so killing the ones who praised him was the next best thing. Anyways, I've distracted you long enough so that there's no chance you'll be able to save Mable, So I'm gonna let you go." Hazel then pressed a button on a remote she was holding

BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP

"Have fun with the rest of your journey." Hazel said as she left the car with the steward. Cory looked at Neil and noticed he was laying on the ground limp.

"Neil? Hey, wake up! Come on wake up! I know I haven't been the nicest person to you... but Mable needs our help so I need you to wake up!"

No response

"Alright I guess I'll carry you." Cory said as he put Neil's limp body on his shoulders and hurried to catch up with Mable, determined to save her.


	9. The Mall Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory goes to the mall car to save Mable, and something awakens within Neil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter, but tomorrow is the final chapter so stay tuned...

Mable sat there, tied to a chair. "I just have one question."

"Yeah? What is that?"

"Aren't you the same flec my mom killed years ago?"

"heh, that's the thing about flecs. We never really go away. But that's not important, is it sliver girl?"

"My name is Mable!"

"Really? If I recall correctly, slivers don't have names do they? Now if you were just a regular sliver, this would be a lot less... gory. But because you have flesh on some parts of your body, there's gonna be lots of blood! I suggest you close your eyes, this'll be over quick."

Before he was able to grind her to dust, the door opened. Cory came through the door carrying Neil.

"Cory!"

"Hold on Mable, I got you!" Cory ran towards her but the flec stood in front of him

"What do you think you're doing, kid?"

"I'm making sure she gets off this train alive, so if you could please-"

Cory was interrupted by Agent Mace grabbing him by the arm, and with one swing,

CRACK

He threw Cory back towards the wall as he cried out in pain at his arm being broken.

"Now, where were we?" Agent mace said

Cory looked over at Neil and noticed that he looked different. He looked less zombie and more human, his pitch black hair had brightened to a pale blonde. And one his arm... was that a number?

*Did he just become human again?* Cory thought to himself

"Now listen to me sliver, after I kill you I'm gonna kill your sliver mother!" Mace was about to use the sander on Mable but someone grabbed his arm.

"You're not gonna kill her." That someone said before punting him kicking him in the stomach. Mable immediately recognized him as Neil, but was confused as to how he was human again. She looked at Cory but all Cory did was shrug

"I remember you!" Mace told him, "You helped me take down her sliver mother years ago! What's changed?"

"What's changed is that I'm not hurting Denizens anymore."

"Denizens, I thought your gang called them Nulls?"

"No, they're Denizens" "Neil" told him as he started dragging him by the collar. He then dragged him outside to the wheels. "Guess what? You're the last denizen I'm ever gonna wheel. After you I'm done."

"You keep telling yourself that kid." Mace told him before "Neil" chucked him at the wheels.

"Neil" Came back inside and untied Mable. "I'm sure the two of you have a lot of questions, and I can already tell what the first one is gonna be."

"Um... What's your name?" Cory asked

"Well my name isn't Neil... My name is Simon."


	10. Simon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil turns back into a human and reveals himself as Simon, a former leader of the Apex

"So in the phone car the phone said you apologized for what you did..." Cory said

"Yeah you can probably put 2 and 2 together-"

"How do you loot a car that doesn't have anything?" Cory interrupted him with.

"Well... the fact we looted the car is why there's nothing left."

"Alright alright, What does this piece of paper say?" Mable said, handing the blank piece of paper over to Simon

"Well I can't read it now, but it said a bunch of stuff about 'not breaking the rules of the train.' So it wasn't anything that bad."

"And the cat?"

"Samantha... she was my companion when I first got on the train... but she abandoned me... It's taken me a while to forgive her but I have."

"So... how did you become human again?"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess it was hearing that Grace died... Speaking of which, I have some people to talk to before I leave the train. My number is... Not as high as it was when I died, but the 2 of you are both at 0 so I suggest you guys get going." Cory and Mable didn't even realize they had reached zero, and once they their exits showed up.

"So the exits don't show up until you realize you're at 0? That's kinda stupid..." Cory said

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with you?" Mable asked.

"I'm ok." Simon told them "I mean, your arm is broken and I don't want you to run into Hazel again."

"That makes sense... group hug?" Cory asked.

"Sure, why not?" Simon said before going to hug the two.

"By the way... Why does Hazel hate you?" Mable said

"I'd... rather not talk about that." Simon told her.

"Hm, well good luck with Hazel, it's gonna be hard to get her to forgive you so make sure you know what you're doing."

"That's a big thing to ask... but I think I can do that."

Mable nodded while waving at Simon as she went through her exit.

"Hey man..." Cory said. "I... didn't realize everything that happened to you, so... I'm sorry for every time I was a jerk to you."

"Listen kid, if anyone knows anything about being a jerk, it's yours truly! Hey, good luck kid."

"Same to you, Simon." Cory said as he went towards his exit.

"Also Neil is a terrible name."

"Whatever you say, Neil." Cory said right before exiting the train.

2 MONTHS LATER

"Cory, what did I tell you about trying to scratch your arm with a cast on? You'll mess up the cast."

"Sorry."

"Relax Mikayla, he gets it off in a few weeks." Tulip said as she walked in.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Tulip said to her

Cory noticed his phone was ringing, when he checked who was calling he saw that it was Mable. "One sec, I gotta take this."

Cory answered the phone as he entered his bedroom. "Hey Mable, whats... good... in... the... hood?"

"Cory I've told you this before, every time you say that I get really annoyed by it."

"That's why I said it." Cory noticed a familiar tune playing over the phone. "Is that mask of my own face?"

"Yeah, I told you your music taste rubbed off on me didn't I?"

"Right, you did." Cory then heard a door knocking over the phone, and a voice that sounded identical to his mother's voice

"Can you turn that down? It's awfully loud." Lake asked her daughter.

"Ok mom."

"What are you even listening to?"

"Lemon demon."

"oh... you know your Uncle Nate always tried to get us to listen to lemon demon but we never did, even when we said we would... I don't think we were missing out on anything important."

"Alright, whatever you say mom." Mable said as she turned the volume on the speaker back up

"A HANDSOME MOTHERFUCKER MOTHERFUCKING-"

Lake looked back with a bewildered expression. "You know, I knew getting you that speaker was a bad idea."

"Are you gonna take it away again?"

"Only if I have to. I'll let you be now." Lake said as she closed the door to Mable's bedroom.

"Was that Lake?" Cory asked

"Yeah... It must've felt weird hearing her voice."

"Not as weird as I expected it to be."

"Have you asked your parents about doing a trip so we can meet up again? My mom isn't quite sure but my dad is all for it."

"I haven't asked them yet, but my mom probably wants to know how her reflection is doing."

"Does she even know her reflection is off the train?"

"No, I just told her you saw her as an inspiration."

"Well, that's not wrong." Mable said. "I'm gonna go to bed now, see ya."

"Alright, see ya." Cory said before hanging up the phone. He was also getting ready for bed until he heard a familiar noise. He looked out the window and saw the same train he saw months ago.

"That doesn't make sense, what did I do this time?" He then noticed that it wasn't there for him, but rather his neighbors who lived around the block.

"Hm, good luck kid." Cory said before turning off his light and going to bed. He didn't care what happened tomorrow, but he knew he was a better person now. Not only because of the train, but also because of Mable and especially because of Simon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyoooo so I had the idea for this since I first watched the first 2 seasons, but I wanted to wait until the entirety of book 3 was released to write this in case anything I had originally planned would still make sense (I was originally gonna have Hazel say she killed Simon but then episode 10 happened)
> 
> I'm actually planning on doing a sequel to this about Simon trying to convince Hazel that he regrets killing tuba and that he's a better person, but I think I'm gonna take a break for about a week before I start writing that.


End file.
